Let’s Talk About My Trip to Vegas

Not too long after I made my post about traveling cheap to Florida I decided to join the Frontier Airlines “Deal Den”. Let me start by saying if you don’t really care how comfortable you are on a plane and don’t need to bring luggage then Frontier is the way to fly. Their seats are almost non existent, they charge $30+ for a CARRY ON BAG. But that’s ok, when they have $20 one way tickets it gets really hard to complain. I also got a great deal on a room at the Gold Coast Hotel & Casino that paired with my flight. $29 a night plus a $71 resort fee. I know this is nothing like my tent in Miami but I wanted the full Vegas experience and they had a free shuttle that drops off at the strip. Free transportation was totally worth it.

So, my boyfriend and I decided to take a quick 2.5 day trip to Vegas because neither of us had experienced it as Adults allowed to drink. After seat selection, round trip tickets for 2 from Denver to Vegas came out to just less than $200. Now since we were only going to be gone for 2.5 days we decided to only take what we could each fit in a purse (and yes he carried a purse). Just enough room for a couple tanks, a pair of shorts, and makeup. I also made sure I wore a couple layers in case it got cold. Now in order to get the cheapest flights available they had some terrible hours. Denver >> Vegas 10pm take off, arrive at 11 pm. Vegas >> Denver 1:44 am take off, 4:44 arrival. They even sound awful, but my boyfriend and I love taking adventures together so what is a little sleep deprivation I mean its Vegas baby!

Day of flight aka Monday of spring break. We wanted to take naps and get all rested for the flight. I get too excited on the day of travel to nap, I have a difficult time sleeping when the sun is out anyway. The boyfriend napped while I spent the day making sure I had exactly what I wanted for the flight, spent time with my little boy because he was staying home, and being annoyed at this slight ache in my mouth. I decided when we were on our way I would slam a SPARK (advocare energy drink. If you want more info then message me) and that should keep me awake and energized. To make this even more of an adventure we decided to make the 2 hour commute using the train that runs around the Denver Metro area called the light rail. That way nobody had to take us or pick us up from the airport at unreasonable hours. When we boarded the first train we were extra excited. I added so many Snaps to my Snapchat (Peasy_pie) story it would have made your head spin. By the end of the train trip that dull ache I felt in my mouth and turned into a full blown toothache. When we hit Union Station in Denver I had to buy some Tylenol…. They didn’t have ibuprofen, but I needed to try something. Obviously that didn’t work so I navigated the airport with this toothache. We ate a quick dinner and each had a drink while we waited. On our way to board we noticed it was snowing outside, which means it took an extra hour before we took off because the plane needed to de-ice. Since it was taking so long I asked the flight attendants if there was ibuprofen on board that I could purchase. No but they found me some aspirin, which again didn’t really help. When we landed we made the TERRIBLE mistake of jumping into a taxi. $32 to get to our hotel… for a 10 minute drive. At this point, it was midnight, we were weary from travel, hungry again and I had a toothache. After dropping our stuff at the room we decided to just explore our casino. The restaurant was open 24 hours so I insisted we needed to eat a more proper dinner than our pre-flight sandwiches. As we sat a Wheel of Fortune machine caught my eye (its one of my favorites). I watched a mad sit down, feed it $60, get mad and walk away. I looked at my boyfriend and informed him that something inside me was telling me to go put a 20 in that machine. He held our table while I ran over. I gave it my $20, and it was a $1 machine so each pull cost $5. I pulled the arm down, and won $300!!! I cashed out and we used that money to pretty much finance our trip! After we ate we decided to take our winnings and go to bed.

Our first morning anywhere we travel to is usually spent sleeping. No child, no work, no school, no obligations. In bed tell noon and happy, but my toothache was still poking at me. On our way to the days adventures I passed by a vending machine that had ibuprofen, it worked great! While we were having a cup of coffee we each purchased a GO City card like we had in Florida. As usual it came with great things to do and a considerable bit of transportation. We used it to get a monorail ticket, the monorail travels almost all the way up and down the strip, and we used it all day. Our first stop was the Stratosphere. Our GO city cards covered the ticket to the observation deck but we also purchased tickets to ride all the rides. The x-scream and Big Shot were the ones we actually rode due to wind. Still the two scariest rides I’ve ever been on. One tips you over the side of the building, and one shoots you up a pole on top basically. Crazy 2,000 feet up in the air strapped into a carnival ride. so great. We made our way inside of so many Casinos: Circus Circus, Planet Holywood, MGM Grand, Bally’s, Flamingo, SLS, Stratosphere. And broke even at all of them! However, I had to call it an early night because my toothache had come back with a vengeance in addition to a head ache because I drank and let myself get sober! We tried an oxygen bar, and ate delicious food. I tried not to let my tooth ruin it. I was still having a blast.

The last day we started with a trip to listen to a timeshare pitch. We got a free mini vacation to Orlando and actually ended up making a vacation club purchase. I will tell you about it once I’ve used it and know if I am happy with it. We made it to the Luxor, Excalibur,  Mandalay Bay, and watched the fountain show at the Bellagio before we ended our Vegas experience with V the Variety Show. Which was great! Several of the acts were from “America’s Got Talent” including a Roller Skating couple that my boyfriend and I idolize (we roller skate as well). Flying and 2 trains later we made it home at about 7am. Exhausted I hung out with my son till he was ready for a nap, and we both napped.

Vegas was a great experience, we loved the strip, there are so many things to do, and the food everywhere is unbelievable! All in all we broke even in the experience, the little bit of cash won was enough to cover the things we did and transportation while we were there. I know this is not the typical Vegas experience, but as long as you don’t take more than you are willing to lose you should be Golden!